Determined Salgaocar Sports Club recorded a well-deserved 3-2 victory over a shapeless Sporting Clube de Goa in their I-League match played at Nehru stadium, Fatorda on Sunday. The match, full of defensive lapses, saw Sporting Clube taking the lead through Nathaniel Amos but a splendid brace form the boots of Nigerian striker Ekene Ikenwa and a Beevan D’Mello strike gave Salgaocar a perfect base in the first session itself. However an uncharacteristic fumble by experienced keeper Kalyan Chaubey allowed Sporting to get an early reducer through Joseph Pereira but Salgaocar hung on to record their maiden win. Both the teams, in desperate need of a victory, started cautiously but it was Sporting Clube who fired the first salvo as early as the 10th minute through Nigerian striker Nathaniel Amos who made best use of some sloppy defence work by Salgaocar stoppers Luciano Sabrosa, new signing Iranian defender Rouhollah Samieina and goalkeeper Kalyan Chubey to tap a Juinor Obagmiro low cross to put his team ahead. Salgaocar’s reply was stupendous as two minutes later winger Anthony Barbosa, receiving a Gurpreet Singh pass on the left flank, found an unmarked Beevan D’Mello inside the box and the diminutive striker found the net beating Felix D’Sousa with an angular header. Although the sparse crowd saw two goals inside the quarter mark there was nothing worth mentioning with both the teams failing to construct decent moves. However, much against the run off play, a long ball from the deep by Salgaocar skipper Luciano Sabrosa in the 22nd minute caught both the Sporting central defenders Felipe Gomes as well as Mathew Gonsalves napping as striker Ekene Ikenwa capitalised on the lapse gleefully before rounding off a much advanced rival keeper Felix D’ Sousa to push the ball into an open goal. Sporting appeared laden footed and with a non-functional midfield it only added to the woes as Salgaocar notched the third goal on the half-hour mark again from the left flank with Gurpreet effortlessly picking out Anthony with a superb through pass and the young winger, entering the box, pulled it just a fraction behind Ekene but Nigerian adjusted well to find the net with a chicky back heel. After the change of ends, Sporting were provided an early reducer as rival keeper Chaubey punched away a Bibianio flag kick straight to Joseph Pereira who immediately struck a left footer, which was on target. Initially it appeared that Kalyan was in control of the situation but the former international keeper had the misfortune of watching the ball slip out of his grasp and falling into the cage to make the score 3-2. At this stage it seemed that Sporting might cash in on the blunders of their rivals but some strange substitutions, which saw stopper back Mathew Gonsalves being replaced by winger Anthony D’ Souza and later on Felipe Gomes making way for the 17-year-old Pritam Ningthoujam, only baffled the Sporting fans as Anthony as well as Pritam could not create any impact. Sporting also sent in Nicholas Rodrigues for the last quarter to salvage something out of the game but it was Salgaocar who missed out on two clear-cut chances as substitute Milagres Gonsalves wasted a sitter while two-goal hero Ekene, in a bid to get his hat-trick, hurriedly shot into the open arms of Felix D’Sousa in the dying moments of the match. Salgaocar’s Nigerian striker Ekene Ikenwa was given the man-of-the-match award. Salgaocar are now eighth on the leaderboard with four points from three matches while winless Sporting, with a single point, are precariously placed just a rung above bottom-placed Viva Kerala. Salgaocar were leading 3-1 at half time.